Are South Indians more passionate & career oriented than North Indians?

Not to generalize , but , I have observed that , South Indians are more inclined towards their career priorities & Explorations than North Indians .
While , Most of North Indians are particularly happy about bagging a government than anything else irrespective of their educational background.

Answer by Raakhee Venugopal:

Thank you for the A2A.

This is something I have pondered upon myself for quite a while, given that I am a south Indian with more friends among north Indians.

I have this childhood friend of mine that I am particularly close with. She is a Punjabi Hindu and comes from a business family in South Delhi. We were talking one day about the ‘relatives circus’ at family weddings and both of us were surprised at how regular conversations go.

In any of my family dos, a family was practically assessed by the academic prowess of their children. Bespectacled uncles and Kanjivaram-clad aunties puffed up in pride as they presented their mini versions to eager relatives saying that they have topped their classes or are stepping on the threshold of some prestigious colleges like IIT or IIM or some such. People were judged by the schools their children were sent to. A child that studied in a CBSE school was on a higher pedestal than one who was being sent to a metric school. Kids who attended IGCSE curriculum were superstars! We were programmed from childhood that money comes after education. Education was…and still largely is everything.

Children as young as 4 or 5 often get asked ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and one shouldn’t be surprised if they hear lofty answers like ‘Engineer’ or ‘Doctor’ or ‘Lawyer’. Probably they wouldn’t even know the spellings of those words at that age. But, like I said, education and a career is never an option for most of us. We are told from a very early age that without an education and a job, you’re going to end up as a ‘nobody’. Money is never mentioned. Money is something that just follows as a result. I know this business family in our neighborhood that I could quote as an example. The family owns multiple business concerns, zips around in swanky cars and owns property and gold like they could buy the entire town. They have two kids – both school drop-outs. I have seen the contempt with which they are looked at by the rest of the town. Nobody cares two hoots about all that money. The children ‘failed’. Their example is quoted often at gatherings. ‘What’s the point of all that money? It’s going to go into the hands of two bumpkins who weren’t clever enough to even finish school! Tsk! Tsk!’ A guy I know went into a bout of severe (almost clinical) depression when he failed to land himself a job for about a year after graduating with an engineering degree So you can imagine the amount of pressure on every child to excel and to ‘be somebody their parents can be proud of’. That statement is highly relative, I know.

My Punjabi friend tells me that people in her family are assessed by anything except education. Money is everything. The richer you are, the higher placed you get in society. It doesn’t really matter if you’ve studied only till Grade 8. She says that her family would have no qualms in marrying their academically brilliant daughter to a school or college drop-out if he is RICH. There are plenty of such couples too. The purpose of education is to earn a living. And if the person has some other ways to make that money, it doesn’t matter if he didn’t attend a formal school. She tells me how her aunties and uncles talk about how they bought their son a BMW or about the latest design diamond necklace for their daughter’s engagement and even about the 5 star cruise they’ve booked. I don’t say that this is how it is in every north Indian household. There could be exceptions…just like how we have exceptions among us too.

They are told that money takes them places…we are told that education takes us places. I don’t know if my observation is right…but I guess this explains why there appears to be a lot more north Indian businessmen than south Indian businessmen.

The attitude runs in the blood. They are more of risk-takers and don’t believe in playing it safe fearing a backlash. And this daredevilry is their USP. We south Indians are mostly happy with getting a solid paycheck at the end of the month, so that we could make our plans well in advance. It’s like playing cricket like Virender Sehwag and playing cricket like Rahul Dravid 😀 (Either you get the analogy or you don’t ;-))